(a) Technical Field
The present invention relates to a hybrid power control apparatus for a vehicle, more particularly, to a hybrid power control apparatus in which an inverter module, a low DC-DC converter (LDC) module and a controller are packed in one closed space, thereby improving cooling efficiency and assembly performance.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A green vehicle using an electric motor as a driving source, such as a hybrid vehicle or electric vehicle, generally uses a high voltage battery or the like as an energy source for driving the electric motor. The green vehicle uses, as power conversion components, an inverter for providing power to the motor and a low DC-DC converter (LDC) for generating 12V of power for a vehicle.
The inverter converts DC power of the high voltage battery between the electric motor and the high voltage battery into three-phase AC power and provides the converted three-phase AC power to the motor. The LDC (or converter) converts the DC power of the high voltage battery into 12V of power for a vehicle and supplies the converted 12V of power to vehicle electric components.
Recently, an inverter, a converter and a controller for controlling the same (the inverter and the converter) have been integrally configured in a package, and the package is referred to as a hybrid power control unit (HPCU). An HPCU for a green car requires improvement of cooling efficiency, and compactness, simplification and high efficiency through improvement of a packaging structure.
FIG. 1 (RELATED ART) is a view schematically showing a power control apparatus for a green vehicle according to the related art.
As shown in FIG. 1, the related art power control apparatus includes a converter 2 installed in a first housing 1, and an inverter 4 and a controller 5 installed in the second housing 3. The first and second housings 1 and 3 are disposed adjacent to each other.
The inverter 4 is configured with a plurality of power modules such as insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), and a gate board and a capacitor module are configured to control the power modules.
The related art power control apparatus has at least the following disadvantages.
First, the housing for the inverter is configured separately from that for the converter, and therefore, it is difficult to reduce the size of the related art power control apparatus.
Second, the gate board and the controller (control board) are disposed with the capacitor module interposed therebetween, and therefore connected through wiring. Hence, a space for wiring is required.
Third, although not shown in FIG. 1, the power module employs a cooling structure in which only one surface of the power module is cooled, and therefore, the cooling efficiency of the power module is low.
Fourth, since there is no cooling structure of the capacitor module, there is a limit in reducing the size of the capacitor module and cooling the capacitor module.
Fifth, mounting components including the converter, the inverter, the controller and the like are installed one-by-one in the closed first and second housings, and therefore, it is difficult to guarantee assembly performance.